Said to be one of the oldest shrines in Japan, Suwa Taisha Kamisha is visited by many tourists throughout the year. In the Edo period, it flourished as a castle town of the Takashima Domain, and in the Meiji period, it flourished as the center of the global silk industry.
Experience the history of Japan in Suwa City, be surrounded by Nature, and spend a blissful time.
COOL JAPAN VIDEOS will send out recommended Information on Suwa City, so thank you.
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
Kamisuwa Onsen Morning Market
The annual Kamisuwa Onsen Morning Market invites you to wake up early on Sunday mornings and join us.
Fresh vegetables, sweets, local farm produce, and many more.
Dates: July 14, 2024 – September 22, 2024
Held every Sunday for a total of 11 times
Time: 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM
Location: Around the Katakura-kan parking area
※ The market may be canceled in the event of unavoidable rain.
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
Right now in Suwa City, nikko kisuge are in bloom on Kirigamine.
Hydrangeas are in full bloom around the city.
There are hydrangea viewing spots throughout the city. In Suwa City, Shoganji Temple is even nicknamed Hydrangea Temple.
During this rainy season, why not head out with an umbrella to enjoy the hydrangeas as they change their beautiful sevenfold colors?
Even in the rainy season, you can savor the unique charm of Japan during this time of year 🎶
Show original text
-
ID:1Ume plum rain is depressing, but the seven changes of hydrangea are tasteful and good *'v'*This text has been automatically translated.
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
The fireworks festival, with a history dating back to 1949, has been loved not only by the people of Suwa but also by fireworks fans from Japan and abroad.
Amid the postwar turmoil, citizens sought bright hope and a swift recovery. On August 15, the first Noryo Suwa Lake Fireworks Festival was held at Lake Suwa. Now in its 76th year, the ticket sales deadline for the 2024 76th Suwa Lake Festival On-the-Lake Fireworks is approaching: Sunday, July 7 at 23:59.
Have you all applied yet?
The application deadline is this weekend! If you haven’t applied, hurry up!
To apply for tickets, search for “Suwa Lake fireworks”!
This is one of Japan’s premier fireworks festivals, the Suwa Lake Festival On-the-Lake Fireworks!!!!!
Since last year, parking can be reserved in advance using Akippa,
so you can arrive with ease by car🚗!
Enjoy an impressive fireworks show of about an hour and a half🎇
We look forward to seeing you in Suwa🎶
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
Shinshu Kankōchi Suwa!!!
Around Suwa lies the Kirigamine Highlands, where gentle rolling terrain stretches from Kurumayama to Washigamine.
In late June, alpine plants such as azaleas (Renge tsutsuji), daylilies (Nikkō kisuge), and scabious (Matsumushi-sō) paint the green meadows in vibrant colors. You can also enjoy sweeping views of Japan’s famous peaks, including Mt. Fuji, the Japanese Alps, and the Yatsugatake Range.
The area generates strong updrafts favorable for glider flight, and Kirigamine is known as the birthplace of gliding in Japan.
Kirigamine contains the “Three Great Kirigamine Wetlands.” Together, Kurumayama, Yashimagahara Wetland, and Ikeno Kurumi Odoriba Wetland host more than 400 subalpine plant species year-round.
They are designated a National Natural Monument and are wetlands rare even on a global scale.
In early summer you can see the renge azaleas in bloom, their vivid orange flowers at their most beautiful.
In summer, as in the photo, the Nikkō kisuge daylilies come into full bloom 🌼. Most of the photos were kindly provided by staff at our Kirigamine Nature Conservation Center.
This year the blossoms may appear a little earlier than usual. Thanks to local Kirigamine caretakers, deer damage seems reduced, so this could be an exceptional season.
Why not breathe in the clear, nature-filled highland air of Suwa and visit to refresh your body and mind?
※ The photos are from 2023.
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
Here is an introduction to Takabocchi Plateau, located on the border between Okaya City and Shiojiri City next to Suwa in the Kankōchi Suwa area.
Takabocchi Plateau spreads across gentle slopes and offers a 360° panorama amid vast nature.
On clear days you can see Mt. Fuji, the Yatsugatake Mountains, the Northern Alps, the Southern Alps, the Central Alps, Mt. Ontake, and Mt. Norikura.
The alpine plant rengetsutsuji (Rhododendron) was blooming bright red.
Note: The Takabocchi Skyline is closed for winter from early December through late April.
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
Kankōchi Suwa!!!
Introducing the Takashima Castle Festival!
May 26, 2024 — held every year on the fourth Sunday of May. We held the 55th Takashima Castle Festival. This year, 19 acts performed on stage. There were hip-hop dance routines, traditional Japanese dance, taiko drumming, singers, cheerleading, and the Matsumoto Castle matchlock gun corps.
The matchlock team left a powerful impression. Even in Japan, this is something you rarely see. The matchlock firearms date back about 430 years, and few groups still maintain and use functioning examples. The Matsumoto Castle matchlock gun corps preserves these guns and passes on the tradition. As a result, you can see matchlock demonstrations at events like those at Matsumoto Castle. The team brought several types of matchlocks. To an amateur eye, I saw two kinds: first a bantsutsu infantry gun, then a chūtutsu medium cannon. They fired blank shots in several formations. The blast was tremendous! At the end, a shooter from Suwa fired the chūtutsu. The sound ripped through the space where we stood. It was truly loud and spectacular!!
There were taiko performances and children’s hip-hop dances, with families coming to watch. At the festival you could also buy food stalls and specialties from sister and friendship cities, and try tree climbing!!! Blessed with good weather, many citizens attended.
If you have the chance to come to the Takashima Castle Festival, be sure to come and enjoy it!
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
Enjoy the best breakfast on a highland in Shinshu.
Would you like to experience breakfast on a breezy plateau at 1,600 meters above sea level?
Relax and savor a luxurious moment while gazing at the vast grasslands before you.
●Period
July 1, 2024 (Monday) – September 30, 2024 (Monday)
(Excluded dates / closed days: July: 4, 13–15 | August: 10–18, 29 | September: 5, 12, 14–16, 19, 21–23, 26 (as of June 13, 2024))
Limited to 20 people per day
Reservation required
●Price
1,800 JPY (tax included)
●Hours
9:00 – 11:00
Booking & Venue
Korobokkuru Hutte
– A stylish café attached to a mountain hut –
●Address Nagano Prefecture, Suwa City, Kirigamine, Kurumayama-Kata
TEL 0266-58-0573
※ Please make reservations by phone directly.
※ Calls may be difficult to get through between 11:00 and 14:00.
“Breakfast at Kirigamine: My Car Plan”
Enjoy an elegant breakfast on the mountain hut terrace while looking out over the sweeping grasslands.
This individual plan includes benefits such as a Kirigamine summer lift ticket and an original pin badge.
●How to Apply
Korobokkuru Hutte
TEL 0266-58-0573
※ Please reserve by phone.
●Access
‣ About 30 minutes by car from Suwa lakeside, Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture
‣ About 40 minutes by car from Chuo Expressway Suwa Interchange via Prefectural Route 40 (Kirigamine–Shirakabako Line)
※ Parking spaces are limited and you may not be able to park. Please note weekends and the season are very busy.
●Other
▷ Reservations accepted until noon the day before
▷ Same-day cancellations will be charged 1,800 JPY per person.
▷ Limited to 20 people per day
▷ Weekends and the season are very busy; reservations may fill up relatively early.
▷ Parking and breakfast service are on a first-come, first-served basis.
▷ Operations may be suspended due to severe weather.
Special perks included!
★Perk 1: Round-trip Kirigamine summer lift ticket
Perk period: July 13, 2024 – August 25, 2024
Lift operating hours: 9:00 – 16:00
※ Lift may not operate in severe weather.
Address: 13338-41 Kamisuwa, Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture
Parking available (Kirigamine Ski Area parking, approx. 200 spaces)
Access: About 5 minutes by car from Kurumayama-Kata, about 2 minutes by car from the Kirigamine Nature Conservation Center parking lot
★Perk 2: Kirigamine Plateau “Original Pin Badge” gift!
Perk period: July 1, 2024 – July 12, 2024 and August 26, 2024 – September 30, 2024
※ The badge shown in the photo is from 2022.
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
Kankouji Suwa!!!
Kirigamine Highlands in Suwa city, Nagano Prefecture. Suwa proudly boasts this scenic spot where alpine plants bloom through the seasons. It is also known as Japan’s glider mecca 🛩️
At Kirigamine you’ll find one of the country’s top daylily (nikko-kisuge) colonies. This lily-family flower represents the highland in July, painting the green slopes with orange-leaning yellow blooms 🌼
Every July Kirigamine’s popularity causes traffic jams. In the hot season, enjoy a leisurely, elegant respite in this cool highland.
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
Kamisuwa Onsen stretches along the shores of Lake Suwa, and when you get off the train you can enjoy that very hot spring as a footbath without even exiting the ticket gate.
On Track 1 of JR Kamisuwa Station there is a sturdy rock-style ashiyu (footbath). This footbath originated from gender-separated open-air baths built in 1986 as part of the "One Station, One Specialty" campaign, and it took its present form after renovations in 2002.
It’s perfect for a brief soak while waiting for a train. In summer it soothes tired, overheated feet, and in winter it warms chilled feet—try soaking in Kamisuwa Onsen’s restorative footbath.
While soaking in the Kamisuwa Station footbath, making and eating an onsen tamago (hot-spring egg) is highly recommended!
At NewDays Mini Kamisuwa on the station premises you can buy the "Kamisuwa Station Onsen Tamago Set" (raw egg, sauce, spoon, cup) for 100 yen (tax included). Please note that entering the platform requires a platform ticket (150 yen) or a valid train ticket.
Simply submerge the egg in the hot spring and, while enjoying the footbath, in about 20 minutes you’ll have a delicious onsen tamago.
Footbath hours: 9:00 AM–9:00 PM
NewDays Mini Kamisuwa hours: 6:45 AM–8:30 PM
Please enjoy it!
Show original text
Suwa Tourism Association posted.
Gyoi-kō (Gyoikō) is a plant in the genus Prunus of the Rosaceae family. It is a Japanese-origin cultivated variety of satoyama cherry (satozakura) that originated from the Oshima cherry. The name has been seen since the mid-Edo period and comes from a color close to the light green of aristocratic robes. It is apparently also called “Misogi (purification).”
The Gyoi-kō shown in this photo is the one at Akiba Shrine in Shimizu-cho, Suwa City. This shrine features several large zelkova trees and three small shrines at their roots, creating a very otherworldly atmosphere that seems like it could appear in a Ghibli film.
Entering Akiba Shrine and going to the left rear, you will find this Gyoi-kō. This cherry blooms about two weeks later than Somei Yoshino and generally flowers around Golden Week. The timing is similar to that of yaezakura (double-flowered cherry). When the flowers first open, the petals are pale green even inside, and as they near the end of blooming faint pink streaks appear toward the center. Although the tree’s vigor has declined compared with the past, the sign says the average tree age is about 20 years. If you look closely, it was planted on May 25, 1975 (Showa 50), so it is 49 years old this year. Amazing, isn’t it! Unlike the famous pink cherries, its pale yellow-green color gives off a lovely hue. Every year I enjoy seeing yaezakura and this Gyoi-kō after the Somei Yoshino finish blooming. Answer! The phrase “light green colored cherry blossom,” which I posted in English on Instagram on January 18 of this year, referred to this Gyoi-kō at Akiba Shrine. Please take a look at the English post as well.
Also, as far as I know, there is a green cherry that appears to be Gyoi-kō on the grounds of the former Suwa City Cleaning Center, now a Suwa City facility for recycling pruned branches. Because this is a Suwa City facility, if you go to recycle pruned branches in early spring and have a chance, please take a look.
If you miss the Somei Yoshino bloom around April in future years, please consider adding Gyoi-kō to your list of blossoms to see.
In particular, if you know of any unusual cherry trees in Suwa City or the six neighboring municipalities, or if you have other local information to share, please leave a comment. I will visit as many as possible!
Suwa Tourism Association Instagram → @suwa_nagano Please follow us!
Show original text